Don't cry for me, I was in Argentina!

The time has come to get out of this country, and into another one far, far away. Last week's journey took me south of the equator to Argentina...
...where I galloped across the pampas....

...and relaxed at an estancia.

More to come soon, now that I am safely back in my home, sweet home. It's good to be home!

Happy Nurses Week 2011

Ode to nurses... To each one of you who decided, either from the time you could talk, or the time you had to chose a major, to be someone who would touch lives...

To each one of you who took the cap off the needle and gave a shot for the first time...

To each one of you who felt the pride of the first time you put a stethascope around your neck...

To each one of you who put on white scrubs and worried about panty-lines, poop, blood, or puke showing...

To each one of you who conquored the NCLEX....

To each one of you who held a hand, gave a hug, gave a bedbath of spa-like quality...

To each of you who has made a meal off of graham crackers, pudding, and grape juice...

To each one of you who has gotten your patient through the night...

To each one of you who has not been able to get your patient through the night...

To each one of you who has wanted to, or actually have thrown away scrubs because that shift was just too gross...

To each one of you who respects HIPPA, DNR's, MAPs, and PTO (most of all PTO)...

To each one of you who has wondered why you do this, and then go back...

To each one of you who has used a sheet as a fancy table cloth, and bedpan as a chip bowl...

To each one of you who daily makes a huge, indescribeable impact on many, many lives...

To each one of you whose existance makes other's life never, ever the same...

To each one of you who are proud to serve in your calling...

Happy Nurse's Week!!!!!
And especially to my favorite nurses: Andrea, Kati, Tracee, Leslie, Heather (all you heather's out there), RW, Stacy, NurseXY, Nicole, Jason, Chris, John, Cecelia, Aran, Jennifer, Sheila, Amy, Shauna, Erin, Jackie, Carol, Jeannie, Jane, Sherry, Molly, Jen, Monica, Katy and Julia. I would be honored to have any of you care for me, but hope I never, ever need you to, you oncology/hospice/ER/icu nurses!!! :)

A 4 mile hike

Would you like to take a hike with me? It starts off with a colorful bang!
Flowers are not the only nice view. These birdwatchers were equally delighted by the sights.


Here it gets a bit trickier...

The trail then came to ..... THE hill. This is my new archnemesis. (if that's spelled correctly. If not, I have a new word for vomit that goes up into the air first.) I have yet to make it all the way up that bad boy in 1 attempt. My personal best was just 1 stop to get my heart back in my chest and my lungs to quit screaming. My worst? 3 takes. Then I came to the second set of hills! UGH!!! If you note, it is so steep you can't even see where it goes down!!!

And then I had to go back up this bugga!

I was not alone on my walk. I met this kind fellow at the top of the first hill.

If you click on him, you can see his blue-belly. Very kind of him to stand up so straight for me.

Some of the flowers were taller than I was! I could imagine how fun it would be as a smaller child to run with abandon through these and build forts in the fragrance.

...that is until I saw all of these!!! Fun for faries, but snails are better left to rest undisturbed. I could just imagine coming out of the fields covered in slime. Yick!!!

In a few days time, these thistles should be magnificent! (Grandma S...these reminded me of you and Scotland!)

Now, this next one had a fragrance that rivaled stock. I kept stopping to inhale the sweet scents, and resisted the temptation to cut off a few pieces to bring home with me.

These petals were like freshly crumpled linen. So like a poppy! They were bigger than my palm though.

Ah, but what are birds when there are lizards and flowers to see?

My Vegetable Garden

Sometime around the middle of the month, on a whim I decided I needed a vegetable garden. It must have been a night after a class about something perfectly dreadful, like the endocrine system. So I bought myself some seeds, a planter, a bit of dirt, and a strawberry plant since I didn't want to look at just dirt. I planted the seeds, watered them, and I was suprised a few days later when I came out to see these little buggers!

I left my faithful Mermaid to tend to my garden. On the 20th, this is what I had: So I will give you the vegetable garden tour. There are peas to the one side, which are growing the fastest.

In the middle, there are cucumber plants, and somewhere tucked in there are 2 garlic bulbs.

I'm hoping my stawberry plant actually continues on to produce strawberries.

This was today: Between the strawberry plant and the peas there is lettuce, and carrots. Unfortunately, I cannot remember which side is which. Ah well. Time will tell.

So I'm not exactly a farmer, but at least some things are growing! I will keep updated, now that the semester is calming down!

Gardening

My hanging basket is quite happy, don't you think? I thought I would give you a tour of my *sprawling gardens* during the springtime. Feel free to put on your walking shoes, grab a sunhat, a cool glass of water or iced tea, and tiptoe to the....ranuculas, which were planted from bulb and quite happy be be free of the bag and placed in some viable dirt.

The paperwhites, too, were eager to stretch their limbs.

I had forgotten that I had gladiolus bulbs still in the soil, and their leaves were reminders of their excitement of the springtime arrival. I hope they will bloom for me!

A late amaryllis is trying to make an appearance, I am hoping it will be red. I have this bad habit of planting things and forgetting what they were.

These guys, though, are California golden poppys. I think. Hmmm. I hope so!

I put a dash of these seeds, and a dash of those seeds, and am pleasantly suprised when other plants, like the purple one, don't die. It's the little things in life, right?

Here you can see the tomato plants I have started. The 2 middle brown pots, for the life of me, I cannot remember what seeds went in there. Ah well. Another suprise.

Well, there you have it!

My sprawling garden. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

a bit of the month

I had to stop and take a picture of this magnificant display of spring. you would never guess where these were... The above pictures were taken just outside of my hospital. On the same day, I was able to take this picture...

Snow! In Southern California! The nerve of it. I guess the freeway ride made up for the snow with these:

Lupen! In bloom at the side of the freeway! Yes, I took this picture as I was driving. I was on my way to see these 2 very special people:

They are worth the drive, anytime! In this case, it was "jokester on the left"s birthday. She enjoyed dinner, and got sang to as well!

I will save her from posting a video. (which I didn't take anyways)

It's good to be me during the springtime! Ok. Back to studying....

Luvs

Look what was delivered to my doorstep for Valentines Day.... ...they were sent from my #1 fan....

....my Mom!

She did good!

My Momma Luvs me!!!